Final ranking of 2011 CAVB African National Volleyball Championship revealed – Men
Recently, the Confederation African de Volleyball (CAVB) organised an exciting FIVB World Cup qualifying tournament in Tangier, Morocco. Teams from eight African countries gathered in Morocco and battled for dominance in the 2011 Men’s African Nations Championship. Five-time winner of the African title, Egypt, was joined by Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Tunisia, South Africa, Congo, and hosts Morocco to contest their skills. The competition kicked off on Friday, September 23 and concluded with the final rankings on Thursday, September 29. At the end of the exciting campaign, teams settled down in the following order:
Egypt (First)
Cameroon (Second)
Tunisia (Third)
Algeria
Congo
Morocco
South Africa
Botswana
Defending champions Egypt successfully maintained its dominance in the game and added a fourth consecutive title to their tally. Egypt started the campaign in Pool B along with teams from Algeria, Congo, and South Africa. In the first round of the tournament, each team got the chance to play three matches. Egypt did amazingly well and finished off the first set with a perfect 3-0 record. They defeated South Africa, Algeria, and Congo, respectively. Egypt had no difficulty in overcoming the underdog teams South Africa and Congo but experienced Algerian squad gave a good competition to Egypt in the second match. Egypt captured the other two matches in straight sets, while they snatched victory from Algeria at the loss of one set.
Nonetheless, Egypt topped the pool ranking and put up with Tunisia in the first match of the knock-out round. Egypt carried the great momentum into the second round and held Tunisia for a 3-0 win at the semi-final stage. Egypt returned to action in the final match and faced off against the Cameroonian team to get a hold of the title trophy.
Egypt emerged as the top team of CAVB Men’s African Nations Championship and also secured the ticket to 2011 FIVB Men’s World Cup, which will be hosted by Japan in November. Egypt will represent Africa at the international tournament and will try to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games. The FIVB World Cup is supposed to send three teams into the Olympic event.
On the other hand, Cameroon was the top team of Pool A in the first round of the African Nations Championship. They put up a great effort and climbed up to the top position in their respective group by winning all three matches. Cameroon remained unbeaten in the competition until Egypt broke their winning streak of 4-0 in the final encounter of the tournament. Cameroon could not live up to their dream of holding the African title for a third time but finished second and settled for the silver.
Despite having the competitive edge of the home court and local supporters, Morocco failed to cash in on the opportunity. They could not go higher than sixth position as they won only two matches in the whole campaign.
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